Voice Over volume stuck on 35%

By Peter Holdstock, 8 October, 2013

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
I managed to accidently turn down the voice over volume and now when I select volume in the rotor the maximum I can get the voice over volume to is 35% meaning everything else is much louder than Voice Over. I've tried a hard reset, turning on and off, doing the power button six times and now I've just tried a full restore from an Icloud backup and it still has the issue. My next step will be to do a full reset using a new iTunes download of IOS7. Anyone have any thoughts. I'll call apple prior to doing the ITunes restore just in case and to make them aware.

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I did this tonight. I did the "reset all settings" on my phone. After a couple of moments, Voiceover came back on and it was if I were turning it on for the first time. I immediately then tried raising the volume with the rocker on the side of the phone. Much to my happiness, it worked. I made sure and turned the volume way up so that Voiceover would have lots of wiggle room, then went about resetting all of those settings I liked. What the "reset settings" doesnt' do. IT does not erase content like mail settings and other individual program settings. What "reset settings" does do. You will need to reset your Voiceover settings, and any settings under the Settings app (including pass code, lock screen, and fingerprints), your Wi fi settings, control center, and basically any other systemwide settings that you may have tweaked. Things I would advise. Don't put volume in your roter. Use the buttons on the side of your phone for volume control. Also, make sure that under "sounds", the "change sound volume" button is turned off. One further note. Make sure you hit "reset settings." Do Not ... not ... not ... hit anything with "erase" in it.I hope this helps someone out there. Please remember that I am not an expert, and any changes you make following these instructions are at your own risk. Hah. Sorry, always wanted to write that.

Hi all, I don't appear to be having this problem. After reading this post, I turned the volume up and down on my new 5s and it sounds fine. I can go from no volume or nearly none right up to full 100 percent. So, I'm not sure why my phone is different to all of you having problems? Steve.

By sockhopsinger on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

Hi Steve: The problem is people try and use the Voiceover volume item in the roter, simply to change the volume of speech without changing any other volumes of any other sound components on the phone. It starts out fine, but if you accidentally flip the Voiceover volume to below 35 per cent on the roter, then for whatever reason, it will then not rise back above that 35 per cent. Why that number? I don't know, and, apparently, neither does Apple. Hope this explanation helps.

By MarkSarch on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

It's notable bug on voiceOver on 5S When I got my 5S last weeken I was playing with boiceOver volume before to use iTunes backUp for first time It's mean I set up as new iPhone when opened the box to later restore from backup I had difference results om my device but finally notable voiceOver volume bugs. If you are curious what the result was I have an Silver 5S 64Gb And voiceOver volume using the rotor stock on 65 percent It occurred iOS 7.01 Personally this bug is notable but not major for my is major bug using headding navigation on the web When you reset all settings You switch all the settings at factory default Include: VoiceOver Off Sounds Apple ID And many more.

Yup, I would aggree with Marco on the previous comment. If you suffer from this issue, just reset the settings back to factory and do not, I repeat, do not add the volume to the rotor until this bug is fixed. There are workarounds, let's start using them. THanks

By allseed on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

not having the volume in the rotor is not an option. I know of no work around that solves my issues with this bug. If we let apple think we can live with it, they will decide it's not worth dealing with.

By allseed on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

I got my device at the same time an in the same store as another person. I'm having the issue, they are not.

Perhaps the other person who got their 5S at the same time has not yet lowered the Voiceover volume to below 35 per cent. Maybe that's why they are not having the issue.

By allseed on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

My friend's 5s is not affected. we turned the vo volume up and down several times and it still works fine even after a couple of weeks. We are not the only ones who are experiencing this mixed effect. quite strange.

Hello all, Yes, it is true we need apple to fix this defect that is affecting VO. There is however, a perfectly acceptable work around until this issue has been taken care of by apple. Keep the volume out of the rotor and use the up and down volume buttons on the side of the phone. That is what they are there for. I have never placed the volume in the rotor setting and used VO this way; never needed to. Maybe I'm dense, but in my opinion, using the volume buttons accomplished the same thing. I do agree that apple needs to fix this issue, but for now; until IOS 7.0.3 or 7.1 is released, you will just have to use the work around. it isn't that difficult.

By allseed on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

I've tried this and wish it would solve my issue but it does not provide for independent volume adjustment as the rotor setting does. That is why it is there.

By Peter Holdstock on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 02:42

Thanks for the replies everyone and apologies I didn't notice it had already been discussed. I'll give the rest settings a try. I'm just typing a lengthy email to Apple Accessibility with all the bugs I've found and I'm sure most of you are doing the same.

I encountered the stuck volume issue not my work phone. I was a to go into sound settings and adjust the volume. Ihave not been able to reproduce the issue ag.

By touch in action on Sunday, November 24, 2013 - 02:42

Hi, I do agree that we have to do work around solutions to achieve results and to be able to work with vo's volume problems on the 5s but I do not believe that work arounds should always be seen as acceptable. I do agree that writing to apple accessibility is important but it should just work and shouldn't have to do tricks and summersaults to get the desired volume. I know it doesn't help complaining but saying don't use the volume option in the router is not a good work around because as Allseed said, that is why its there and its useful. Apple should fix it but saying all the time there are work arounds, that is just making excuses for apple and then if we just are slack and accept things as they are then we will not get things changed and evolving. That is just my 2 cents worth.

By Dan Aunspach on Sunday, November 24, 2013 - 02:42

I held a chat session with an Apple Support Team Member tonight. After going through settings changes and suggestions for about 15 to 20 minutes, he admitted he needed to check into exactly what this rotor thing was, because he'd never heard of it. With some incredulity, I responded with questions about how he could provide support for an iPhone, especially VoiceOver support, and not know what the Rotor is? I purchased my 5S less than 30 days ago off contract and indicated I was considering returning the device. This did not seem to matter much to him. Anyway, now I have to consider whether to return the 5S and get a 5C (probably not) or maybe swap with my wife who has the 5. I would really like to retain the 64-bit processing power, though. I could just wait it out, but this issue has been hanging on for some time and I don't foresee a formal resolution coming any time soon. Wish I had better news to report. Thought you might like an update. I hope someone posts a resolution, soon, but I am not holding my breath.

It is now January 20, 2014. The last update to this thread was in November 2013. I am shocked that Apple hasn't offered a fix for this issue yet. This is my first iPhone and my first iOS device and I am very disappointed in Apple. There are many situations when using the buttons to turn up was over volume is not acceptable. For example when making a phone call to an answering service. Voiceover volume is often so much lower than answering machines voice. Is there no one on this site or any visually impaired person connected more directly with Apple? Sending bug reports to someone who never writes back doesn't seem to be too helpful. I have also reported this problem so that's one more voice.

Unfortunally there is not solution yet. just today apple launch the iOS beta 7.1.3 or iOS 7.1.4 I. not sure but the big release will until March when apple release iOS7.1 sorry just wait couple months

In sound settings, uncheck change sound volume with buttons. Now I am able to adjust VO volume with the rotar or the volume buttons. The draw back is that when the text messages start pouring in on the oncll phone I can't turn down the text message tone. I'm using IOS 7 on an iphone 4.